Wrestling Ernest Hemingway

This is a great movie, and the critic's plot summary doesn't come close to helping you decide whether or not to watch it. It's NOT a tear jerker either. With this cast you're obviously not watching any rookies or male actors lost in their macho. Every character in this movie is played superbly, and becomes so real, that you can't help but feel like you are right in the middle of a slice of life in a little town on the coast of Florida.

Robert Duval (Walter) is a retired Cuban gentleman, Richard Harris (Frank) is a lonely, crusty retired sailor. Each lives alone, without any family around. They meet in the park at Franks' unwelcome prompting, and with some real reluctance on Walter's part. Shirley McClaine (Coonie) is the divorced motel landlord where Frank lives, and they go toe to toe over one issue after another, occasionally over a little Irish whiskey, including whether or not she'll let Frank get his hands on her. Sandra Bullock (Elaine) is Walter's favorite waitress at the Sweetwater Cafe, and they exchange fond jabs each time he comes around. Piper Lorie is a self respecting single lady, on whom Frank clumsily works his flawed romanatic magic in their town's only movie house.

At the center of this light drama is the unlikely and rocky friendship developing between Frank and Walter. With the backdrop of a laid back little coastal town, and moving to wonderful cuban music and rhythms, each one of the characters and relationships unfolds a little at a time, and begin to cross over one another. Just as you get to know people in your life a little at a time, these folks become more and more themselves as the story unfolds.

The timing, setting, filming, music, and subtleties of the characters and the script work beautifully so that you fall right into it all.

The ending is tender, wistful, and the characters just seem to go their own way. This is like that book you read, where halfway through you started dreading the last few pages.

Even though Duvall's fake, middle class Cuban accent was not right on the money all the time, he portrayed his obsessive/compulsive, retired gentleman character's odd and gentle affectations to the letter and was totally believable and the best thing in this movie, along with Shirley Maclaine in her tough/nice landlady role as Cooney. Duvall played his character Walt as an intensely honorable man raised in the strictest form of old Spanish "gentilhombre" tradition prevalent in pre-Castro Cuba. He left Cuba for America to see the Yankees in the 1958 World Series, and never returned as the Communist revolution occurred at the same time, preventing his return. As he was a true gentleman, when there was such a thing, he was not to be personally insulted or touched in anger by any man or be at all discourteous to women or tolerate such behavior by other men, and any such coarse behavior in his presence was sure to cause an altercation, and perhaps even a physical one. To him, true gentlemen were protectors of the innocence and dignity of women in his well-defined world of gentility and respect.

Harris' sloppy and crude character Frank, who was achingly lonely but showed good reason for his alone-ness in his selfishness and eccentricity, was sure to aggravate Walt in short order with his cursing and coarse behavior. Harris' role was really not too much of an acting stretch for this famous rounder in real life, but he was still very effective in conveying the angst of loss of a meaningful life and family love.

Their short friendship leading to the inevitable conflict was so touching and sad in its honesty and spot-on emotional accuracy when men of a very different style finally clash and part. The same or similar thing has happened to many of us at one time or another in life, so most viewers will connect with its truth and emotional impact. It was nice to see them reconnect after Frank essentially apologized to Walt in the only way he could, obliquely.

The film had a relaxed and almost "retired" pacing, never boring to me but perfectly in tune with day to day retired living in the Miami area, or anywhere. Three scenes of the men together were particularly memorable for their sensitivity and insight.... the fireworks scene, the haircut/shave scene, and the scene where Frank "apologized" to Walt after their argument and afterward they both danced with little girls in a park. Watch for these scenes as they come up as they are crucial to story development. Just great film-making.

This film was one of the best I have seen in depicting how differing people retire from useful professions and then fade from being productive social contributors into their respective, more or less useless retired ways, with some fighting and struggling the whole way and others accepting their fate with gentleness and realization of the inevitability of life. We are all like these film characters in some ways, or will be, and seeing in the film what awaits us all in an older age was not always a pretty sight, but it was always very engaging and touching. We truly cared for the characters in this film....the primary mark of a successful story.

A wonderful film not to be missed by anyone over 50.

I got some good belly laughs watching the antics of these two gents dealing with retirement and loneliness. Duvall was superb, as always, but Harris stole the show with his constant search for companionship and his relentless quest for sex - something I suspect he was no longer capable of. Well worth seeing.

In life, one of the simple pleasures for me is getting a haircut, closing your eyes and feeling someone's massaging fingers on your scalp, snipping your wet hair, in the caring hands of an old pro. I came to this fifteen minutes in -- I hope I didn't miss anything crucial -- but in a way, the movies we watch having missed a portion are always more interesting. This is a just a small, easy slice-of-life drama -- a perfect example of a "good little movie," the kind to watch on a Sunday afternoon with someone you love. An actor who never stops taking chances and a master of understatement, Robert Duvall slides into his role of a humble, honorable, respecting Cuban so perfectly here and he's complemented by excellent work from Richard Harris, as the well-meaning but coarse drunken loudmouth ex-sailor in the park he befriends out of a need to simply not be alone anymore. Because of their mastery, we grow so attached to these fully-formed characters that it honestly hurts to leave.

The film is exceptionally well-paced, and written with fresh dialogue and immensely touching observances. There's a scene where Duvall learns his favorite waitress is moving away (Sandra Bullock, with appropriate charm), and the expression on his face and hesitance in his speech rips your heart clean out. Then there's the buried disappoint on his face when he sees her reaction to the farewell gift of vodka suggested by Harris. Where Duvall has his junior league baseball games and poignant dancing in his apartment (alone), Harris gets positively hostile towards a woman (Piper Laurie) in a movie theater (where he works, thanks to a spiffy haircut by Duvall) and Shirley MacLaine, also in his housing complex. The plot is thin but in the meandering vignettes there are superb moments, like Harris accosting Duvall in the street about his fantasy of dancing (whether it comes true, you'll have to watch), or later, Duvall insisting that Harris be a well-dressed gentleman at all times. The sentimental score and old time Cuban music enhance the movie; it's quiet and wonderful -- the years may fly by, but the summer days are nice and slow. 9/10

In 1992, I was a literary agent at Writers & Artists Agency in Los

Angeles. In a town where new scripts by unproven young writers

can't get their scripts read, I was one of the few agents who was

eager to find new talent. One day, I received a letter from a young

writer asking me to read his script. The title intrigued me and the

story he described demanded that I read the script. The young writer's name was

Steve Conrad and he had just graduated from the University of

Chicago. The script was "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway", and from

the very first page, I knew I had to represent it. The writing was so

simple, so poetic, so powerful, so witty and so real that I called

him before I had even finished reading the script. I was able to

convince Todd Black, an enthusiastic young producer, to read it

and his passion matched mine. He sold it to Warner Bros. and

they made the movie. In a Hollywood rarity, Steve remained the

sole writer of the script.

I am so gratified to read the User Comments and to see how this

little gem of a movie has affected so many people. I am no longer

a literary agent; I now teach English and History to 6th graders. I

shall always be so proud that I had some part in bringing this

wonderful writer and his script to the screen, and that so many of

you have shared my passion about it.